For a number of months we have gotten a Runtime Error message when Publishing. We use the Responsive HTLM5. We publish to a newtwork folder initially and later tranfer the published files to our web server. We have a very large project with over 2000 topics. The Generate process works ok. The error message occurs when RoboHelp gets to the WhxData folder. I have noticed that the number of files in the WhxData folder is increasing.We have tried:deleting .cpd file.Re-installing RoboHelp We have developed a workaround but it is not always successful:Reboot laptopCheck to see if the $variable$ and/or __cpSwf2HTML5ZipMap files are showing up in the root folder BEFORE opening the project. If it’s there BEFORE you open the project, DELETE the files first and then open the project.Once you start publishing, monitor the root folder. The $variable$ and/or __cpSwf2HTML5ZipMap files might get generated. I found out that the $variable$ file doesn’t cause any issue usually, but you want to delete the __cpSwf2HTML5ZipMap file if it is generated after you clicked the “publish” button.Delete the !SS!\ResponsiveHTML5\whxdata folder prior to opening the project Sometimes the project publishes successfully the first time, without interventions. Sometimes it takes a number of times before the project can be successfully published.

Participating Frequently

Question

Get Runtime Error Message Publishing RoboHelp 2017

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
November 14, 2022
7 replies
759 views

For a number of months we have gotten a Runtime Error message when Publishing. We use the Responsive HTLM5. We publish to a newtwork folder initially and later tranfer the published files to our web server. We have a very large project with over 2000 topics.

The Generate process works ok. The error message occurs when RoboHelp gets to the WhxData folder. I have noticed that the number of files in the WhxData folder is increasing.

We have tried:

deleting .cpd file.
Re-installing RoboHelp

We have developed a workaround but it is not always successful:

Reboot laptop
Check to see if the $variable$ and/or __cpSwf2HTML5ZipMap files are showing up in the root folder BEFORE opening the project. If it’s there BEFORE you open the project, DELETE the files first and then open the project.
Once you start publishing, monitor the root folder. The $variable$ and/or __cpSwf2HTML5ZipMap files might get generated. I found out that the $variable$ file doesn’t cause any issue usually, but you want to delete the __cpSwf2HTML5ZipMap file if it is generated after you clicked the “publish” button.
Delete the !SS!\ResponsiveHTML5\whxdata folder prior to opening the project

Sometimes the project publishes successfully the first time, without interventions. Sometimes it takes a number of times before the project can be successfully published.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Peter Grainge

Community Expert

@Jeff_Coatsworth has given you the link but I doubt they will help with your version. It's many years out of support.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

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Peter Grainge

Community Expert

You refer to a virtual machine and to an external drive. Have you tried with RoboHelp installed directly onto a PC and all work done there?

The problem here for the forum supporters is this seems to be a problem with your environment that Adobe Support would be better placed to resolve. Unfortunately your version is out of support.

________________________________________________________

My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

Use the menu (bottom right) to mark the Best Answer or Highlight particularly useful replies. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here.

C

Cat25794137bhifAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you Peter for replying.

Yes we have tried that.

The Whxdata folder seems to be the problem. I gets bigger. We are now having problems with our search function not working.

I am trying to get support from Adobe.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

See https://helpx.adobe.com/contact/enterprise-support.other.html#robohelp for your Adobe Support options. I'd recommend using the tcssup@adobe.com e-mail address as it reaches a team dedicated to Technical Communication Suite products including RoboHelp.

C

Cat25794137bhifAuthor

Participating Frequently

We are still getting the error message and do not have a solution.

A

Amebr

Community Expert

Yep, for over 20 years people have been coming on the forums and saying "But it's been working fine" and we have to keep saying, "yes, but it's pot luck that it hasn't broken before this".

C

Cat25794137bhifAuthor

Participating Frequently

As I mentioned, we have tried locating the project folder on our new virtual machine, as well as our mobile drive, a fileshare folder, as well as on the C drive. We will encounter file length issues if we locate it in the RoboHelp Project folder.

Any other solutions for our issue?

A

Amebr

Community Expert

The My RoboHelp Project folder is one of the last places I'd keep the project because of the long path issue as you said. And also sometimes this is actually a OneDrive location which can result in the sync/network issues mentioned.

For testing purposes, try setting up the following folder structure:

C:\

--Project

----Source

----Output

Put your project in C:\Project\Source.

And generate to C:\Project\Output.

This means everything is local, and not accidentally on a cloud drive, to exclude network slowness and cloud synchronisation as the cause of the errors..

If the errors still occur, well, we know it's not network or cloud sync (unless you have a very unusual setup), so then antivirus would be the next thing to rule out.

A

Amebr

Community Expert

It may also be the external drive causing issues. They aren't exactly the same as a local hard drive (C drive) and can be slower or have network transfer lag. Typically I always recommend working on Robohelp projects on C drive and fairly close the the root C directory to avoid Windows path limitiations. Keep a zip copy on the external or network drive for backup - you copy it down from the external drive when you want to start working on it, then copy it back up on a schedule that makes you happy with your data security (daily or weekly depending on the frequency of edits, for example).

C

Cat25794137bhifAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi, We have tried that and we are in the process of implementing a virtual machine. The RunTime error message could appear on any of the locations we have tried. The external drive has been working successfully for five years. It is only in the last few months that we have been experincing the issue.

A

Amebr

Community Expert

The $variable and _cp files I think are temporary files created during generation and should be cleaned up when generation finishes. So if they exist it sounds like something is going wrong with/interrupting the generation process.

You say you work on a local drive. Is it in somewhere like your Documents folder? If so, this is often a cloud drive like OneDrive. Try moving the project to somewhere like C:\MyProject\src instead, to ensure there isn't any network lag or cloud synchornisation to cause any problems. Also generate somewhere like C:\MyProject\output to rule out the same issues.

Another option is corporate antivirus scanning interrupting the process (I've had this happen in a number of work places). See if you can get them to disable it temporarily, or add an exclusion to the folder you generate to.

C

Cat25794137bhifAuthor

Participating Frequently

Thank you Amebr,

I will see what we can do with our virus scanning. It seems like a posible cause.

We actually keep our source files on an external drive but we are migrating to a virtual machine.

Cat

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

First, I'd check to see that your RH2017 is running the last update that was created for that version. Then I'd stop with the network location & go back to generating to a local drive first to see that all is created correctly. I'm a bit confused because Publishing includes Generating and Transferring the output to the web server - if you just Generate and manually copy it all over to the web server, then there's no need to Publish.

C

Cat25794137bhifAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi Jeff, We actually do publish to a local folder. We have to use FTPS to transfer the published files to our server so we use another method. Our problem is during the Publish phase. We get the error message or crash and if I look at the !SS!\RespnsiveHTML5 folder, a folder name that is alpahbetically after WhxData folder has not been created.

I believe we have all installed the updates.

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